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The Game (rapper)
Jayceon Terrell Taylor (born November 29, 1979), known by his stage name Game and The Game, is an American rapper, entrepreneur, record producer and actor. Game is best known as a rapper in the West Coast hip-hopscene, and for being one of Dr. Dre's most notable protégés. Born in Los Angeles, California, he released his first mixtape You Know What It Is Vol. 1 in 2002, and landed a record deal with the independent label Get Low Recordz owned by JT the Bigga Figga. Game's mixtape reached the hands of Sean Combs, founder of Bad Boy Records, who originally was on the verge of signing him to his label. Five months later, he was discovered by Dr. Dre who listened to the mixtape and signed him to his Aftermath Entertainment label in 2003. He rose to fame in 2005 with the success of his debut album "The Documentary" (2005) and "Doctor's Advocate" (2006). The Recording Industry Association of America certified his album "The Documentary" double platinum in March 2005 and it has sold over five million copies worldwide. A dying genre in the 2000s, Game is considered to be a driving force in bringing back the West Coast hip hop scene into the mainstream and competing with many of his East Coast counterparts. Game was placed into G-Unit by Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine. Due to his disputes with 50 Cent, Game left Aftermath Entertainment and signed with Geffen Records another label under Universal Music Group's Interscope-Geffen-A&M division to terminate his contractual obligations with G-Unit in the summer of 2006. Game's second album Doctor's Advocate was released on November 14, 2006 and it became his second straight album to debut at No. 1 on US Billboard 200 chart. Doctor's Advocate did not feature any production from Dr. Dre. Pitchfork Media placed "The Documentary" at number 35 on their list of Top 50 Albums of 2005. Game was nominated with a total of two nominations, including Grammy Award for Best Rap Song and Grammy Award for Best Rap Performance by a Duo or Group for the smash single "Hate It or Love It". The New York Times named Doctor's Advocate best hip-hop album of 2006. His next album LAX was released in 2008. With his fourth studio album The R.E.D. Album, Game made a return to Interscope Records. In addition to music, Game has starred in motion pictures and founded The Black Wall Street Records.As of September 2012, Game is working on his fifth studio album titled Jesus Piece. Early life Game was born Jayceon Terrell Taylor on November 29, 1979 in Los Angeles, California. He grew up in Compton, a low-income crime-ridden city in Los Angeles County, in a primarily Crip gang neighborhood known as Santana Blocc, although he grew up to become a member of the Bloods. He was born into a life of gang-wars and hustling. In an October 2006 interview with MTV News correspondent Sway Calloway, Game described his family as "dysfunctional" and claimed that his father molested one of his sisters. When later interviewed, Game stated that at a young age, he recalled seeing both of his parents preparing to do drive-by shootings. His father was a Nutty Block Crips and his mother a Hoover Crippelette. Drugs and guns were all around Taylor when he was a youngster. His father was a heroin addict and both his parents frequently took cocaine. At around the age of 6, Taylor stated that a friend of his was murdered for his clothes and shoes in the neighborhood by a teenager. At age 7, Taylor was placed in foster care. Initially, he was teased by other children. However, his intelligence was acknowledged by his caretakers and he usually helped his foster brothers and sisters with their homework. Taylor had a defining moment in his life when he met his idol, rapper Eazy-E of the rap group N.W.A, around 1989.Throughout Taylor's adolescence, he endured many hardships. At 13, one of Taylor's older brothers, Jevon, who was 17 at the time and had just received a record deal, was shot at a gas station. Taylor stated that he felt his father played a hand in this by not being there, for if he had, his brother would not have been shot. Jevon died the day after Jayceon visited him in the hospital, promising that things would be better and that lost time would be made up. Two years later, when Taylor was 15, he was removed from the foster care system. He moved in with his mother, Lynette, as his father was no longer around, and had a tumultuous relationship with his mother at first. Taylor attended Compton High School, where most students who were affiliated with gangs were Crips. However, his older half brother George Taylor III, known as Big Fase 100, attended Centennial High School and was the leader of the Cedar Block Piru Bloods. In high school, Taylor was beginning to follow in his brother's footsteps but when his natural athletic abilities earned him a position as the point guard on the basketball team, he chose to focus on athletics instead, joining the track team and playing other various sports. In 1999, Taylor graduated from Compton High School and enrolled in Washington State University. According to Taylor, he had earned a basketball scholarship to the university, but was kicked out of the university after being caught with drugs in his possession. The university's athletic department, however, refutes that Taylor was ever enrolled in their athletic program and denies the drug claims. After being expelled from college, Taylor fully embraced street life, selling drugs and running with gangs. Game and his brother Big Fase owned an apartment on the outskirts of Compton in Bellflower. Shortly after moving there, they had a monopoly on the drug trade, but the operation was short-lived. On October 1, 2001, while Taylor was in the apartment alone, he heard a knock on the door at 2 a.m. Expecting a late night sale, Taylor opened the door to see a regular customer. The man, however, was accompanied by two other visitors. A fight then ensued between Taylor and another man, and before he was able to reach for his pistol, Taylor was shot five times by one of the assailants. After lying still for several minutes, Game used his cell phone and called an ambulance. Due to the severity of his wounds, Taylor went into a three-day coma. Music career Early career (2002–03) While recovering in the hospital from gunshot wounds he incurred in late 2001, Game told his brother to go out and buy all of the classic hip-hop albums. Over the course of five months, he studied all of the various influential rap albums and developed a strategy to turn himself into a rapper. With the help of his older brother Big Fase, they founded the label. It originally featured such artists as Glasses Malone, Vita, and Nu Jerzey Devil, along with Game himself. His stage name was coined by his grandmother; she said that he was game for anything. Game first gained prominence when he attended a hip hop summit hosted by Russell Simmons and Louis Farrakhan. After he had fully recovered, Game and Big Fase made a mixtape together. He released his first mixtape You Know What It Is Vol. 1 in 2002, and landed a record deal with the independent label Get Low Recordz owned by JT the Bigga Figga. Game's mixtape reached the hands of Sean Combs, founder of Bad Boy Records, who originally was on the verge of signing him to his label. Five months later, he was discovered by Dr. Dre who listened to the mixtape that had been produced by his brother. Dr. Dre contacted Game and signed him to his Aftermath Entertainment label in 2003. In late 2003, Interscope Records CEO Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre decided to have Game work with 50 Cent and G-Unit in order to help build a growing buzz around Game which would also fuel interest in G-Unit. Game made his first cameo appearance in the music video for 50 Cent's "In da Club", where he is seen dancing with a girl. Since then, he has made numerous cameo appearances in music videos by 50 Cent, Lloyd Banks, Young Buck, and Fabolous. Game spent the next two and a half years working on his debut album and being mentored by Dr. Dre. The Documentary Not having dropped an album despite being signed onto Aftermath Entertainment and Interscope Records for a while, Game was still able to create hype around his image alone. He appeared in ads for Sean Combs's Sean John clothing company and had an endorsement deal with Boost Mobile, appearing in a commercial alongside Kanye West and Ludacris. Game also appeared heavily on the mixtape circuit and guest starred on mixtapes for DJ Green Lantern, The Diplomats, and G-Unit. The first single released with Game on it was "Certified Gangstas", which also featured Jim Jones and Cam'ron. Though the single wasn't considered to be mainstream, the buzz increased around the West Coast rapper. On September 28, 2004, Game released his first promo single, "Westside Story", from his debut album. He had originally chosen to title his debut album Nigga Wit' An Attitude Volume 1 (as heard in the lyrics to "Dreams"), but an injunction filed at the request of Eazy-E's widow prevented him from using N.W.A.'s name in the album title. Thus, the album was titled The Documentary, which featured Dr. Dre and 50 Cent as executive producers. The album spawned the hit singles "How We Do" and "Hate It or Love It", the latter receiving two Grammy nominations. The album debuted at number one on the Billboard 200 and was the tenth best selling album of 2005 in the United States. It also debuted at number seven in the United Kingdom and sold over five million copies worldwide. In October 2004, he released Untold Story through Get Low Recordz, which sold over 82,000 copies within its first three months. The album featured artists like Sean T, Young Noble (of the Outlawz), and JT the Bigga Figga. Game also appeared on various mixtapes hosted by DJ's such as DJ Kayslay, DJ Whoo Kid, and DJ Clue. Game also released a second mixtape You Know What It Is Vol. 2 through his own record label and appeared on the video game NBA Live 2004 on a song produced by Fredwreck called "Can't Stop Me". Later that year, the young rapper Lil Eazy-E, son of rapper the late Eazy-E, entered a feud with Game. The two used to be close associates and even recorded music together. Lil' Eazy-E has since directed numerous diss songs targeting the rapper, and has expressed his anger over what he felt was Game misuse of his father's name. Game responded by claiming that Lil' Eazy-E was trying to establish himself off the success he had made since releasing The Documentary. He released a song titled "120 Bars" where he claimed that Lil' Eazy-E does not write his own lyrics. However, on the same track, Game stated that he would rather not feud with Lil' Eazy-E due to the deep respect he has for Lil' Eazy-E's father. Lil' Eazy-E later responded with "They Know Me". On October 30, 2006, Game went on KDAY and said that he and Lil' Eazy-E had ended their feud. Dr. Dre's nemesis, Suge Knight, also had an ongoing feud with Game that stemmed from Yukmouth's claim that Game had been slapped by Suge Knight. Game responded on his website, saying that if Suge Knight had ever touched him, he would be "six feet under". After the 2005 BET Awards show, associates of Death Row Records had their invitations to a party hosted by Ciara rescinded. Supposedly, a member of Death Row Records tried to steal Game's chain. Game stated on his website that he disliked Suge Knight because of "the lives he has endangered". In Miami for the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards, Suge Knight was shot and wounded at Kanye West's party by an unknown gunman. Game vigorously denied involvement in the shooting, but the incident renewed efforts to pacify hip hop feuds and Game has consequently been discouraged from attending certain events in hopes of averting retaliation. Later, Game and various representatives of California's rap cliques formed a West Coast "peace treaty" to end many rivalries between West Coast rappers. Although Suge Knight did not attend, he and Game declared their feud over. Links *T-Boss - Lax Label Koch (2008) See Also * List of Rappers and Rap Groups * List of Rappers * List of American rappers and rap groups * List of American rappers * List of Greater Los Angeles Area rappers and rap groups Category:Rappers and Rap Groups Category:Rappers Category:American hip-hop Category:American rappers and rap groups Category:American rappers Category:Gangsta rap Category:Rappers and Rap Groups in Greater Los Angeles Area Category:Rappers and Rap Groups in Compton, California Category:CEO Category:Hip-Hop record producers Category:American hip-hop record producers Category:Black Wall Street Records Category:Black Wall Street Records rappers Category:Wikipedia Category:1979 births Category:November 29 birthdays Category:Members of the Bloods